July 12, 2010, 8pm

Sternberg Park (map)

Four brand new films featuring the life and work of the artists of Bushwick.

Every year hundreds of artists reveal their worlds for the Bushwick Open Studios festival, produced by Arts in Bushwick. In 2010, four filmmaking teams, each including a prolific local filmmaker and a youth artisan from Reel Works, created short movies capturing the life and work of one or more of the dynamic artists and spaces that make up the festival.

The results will premiere at CinemaParque with a conversation with the filmmakers and artists. Filmmaking teams include Graham Meriwether & Negesti Cantave, Manuela Viera-Gallo & Isaac Shrem, Leat Klingman & Yanil Santana, and Albert Beniada. Featured artists include Jill Sigman/Thinkdance, Noa Charuvi, and the Merzbush installation at venerable gallery Norte Maar.

This program is presented in partnership with Arts In Bushwick & Reel Works Teen Filmmaking.

Featuring

jill sigman/ thinkdance by Graham Meriwether and Negesti Cantave

Jill Sigman

Founded in 1998 by choreographer Jill Sigman, jill sigman/thinkdance presents conceptual dance that asks questions through the medium of the body. Following in the tradition of European dance theater, Sigman creates work rich in bold images and multi-media elements. She transforms simple actions like walking on eggshells, sliding down the stairs, and eating hot pink roses into complex statements about self, society, and human experience.

Graham Meriwether

Graham is part of Leave It Better, a video-based online magazine committed to sharing ideas about how we can improve our environment and take action to green the neighborhood. Leave It Better’s first feature film, American Meat, is a solutions-oriented look at the U.S. meat industry.

Negesti Cantave

Negesti Cantave is an 18 year old Brooklyn native and film maker . She is a Graduate of Reel Works “The LAB” class and a 2010 Tribeca Film Institute Film Fellow Graduate as well.

Immigration, Women & Art by Manuela Viera-Gallo & Isaac Shrem

A short documentary film about female American and immigrant artists, how their art differs and how it is an extension of themselves.

Manuela Viera-Gallo

Born in Rome, Italy, in 1977 where her family lived in exile, came back to Santiago Chile in 1984 when the military regime was strong in power. She studied art in the Catholic University, when the democracy returned to Chile. Since 2004 residing and working in New York. She recently had her first New York solo show at Union Gallery.

Isaac Shrem

Isaac Shrem is a Brooklyn, NY based documentary filmmaker. Over the last 5 years Isaac’s film “The Other Side Of The Picture” and his other films have won numerous awards, from festivals ranging from as close to home as New York, all the way to South Korea. Last year his 30 minute short film “Over Here” aired on PBS Channel 13, opening up for the Ken Burns World War II documentary series “The War”. He is currently directing and producing a television series titled “Reel Works with Byron Hurt,” airing on NYCTV’s LIFE Network, Channel 25 and 22, Friday’s at 9:00PM.

Noa Charuvi by Leat Klingmann & Yanil Santana

Noa Charuvi

Born in Jerusalem, Israel, Noa moved to New York City to pursue a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts. After completing her studies Noa stayed in Brooklyn where she currently lives and works. In 2010 Noa has been awarded participation in the AIM program at the Bronx museum. This spring Noa attended to the Corporation of Yaddo artist residency in Saratoga Springs, NY and she will participate in the international artists workshop at Triangle Arts Association in Brooklyn, NY this coming fall. Her is part of the group show “Heat Wave” in Lombard Freid Projects in June-July 2010. Recent group shows including her works took place in Parker’s Box gallery in Brooklyn, NY and the Affordable Art Fair in New York, NY. An article featuring Noa’s work, “’Finding Contemporary Beauty in Postmodern Painting’ by Leah Triplett was recently published in the Boston-based online art magazine “Big Red and Shiny”.

Leat Klingmann

Leat Klingman is a puppeteer-filmmaker. She was born in Israel and currently lives and works in New York. She received her BFA at the University of Haifa, and her MFA at the School of Visual Arts, NYC. Leat has transformed herself from a fine artist to a puppeteer-filmmaker with much joy! She concentrates in creating and telling the stories of magical, fanciful puppets and their realms, such as that of Mister Pink- the sweetest animalish creature, and the graceful white Horsy. Mister Pink & Horsy were recently added to Volume 4 of Handmade Puppet Dreams (Heather Henson’s company). Recent screenings include- Puppet Blok at Dixon Place in NYC; NYC Best Short Filmmakers at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn; Video for the Public at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Sweden; V-Dance, International Festival for Video Dance at the Cinemateq in Tel-Aviv, Israel; Cowtown Puppetry Festival at Hip Pocket Theatre, Texas. A premiere of her next film, Wolfy’s Journey – a musical, will take place in January 2011 at 3rd Ward.

Yanil Santana

Yanil Santana currently attends James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York as an uprising Junior. She has recently graduated from the Reel Works Teen Film-making program, The Lab. Her first film, “Forever Young”, was recently screened on April 17, 2010. She enjoys filming more than anything else and wishes to produce and direct many more films in the future.

The Merzbush: elegies to Kurt Schwitters by Albert Beniada

The Merzbush: elegies to Kurt Schwitters

In the years following World War I, the cubist Kurt Schwitters coined the term “Merz” in reference to his life ambition to “make connections between everything in the world.” Through the use of painting, sculpture, collage and graphic design, Schwitters hoped to unify life and art by incorporating non-art into his work. Schwitters is well known for his collage, but the artist also altered interiors of living spaces. The most famous of these being The Merzbau, which utilized hundreds of found materials, took over 10 years in the making, and transformed a family house into a living walk-in sculpture. Schwitters’ The Merzbau was the pioneer of installation art.

For Bushwick Open Studios 2010, Norte Maar will present THE MERZBUSH featuring the creative genius of several artists who will revisit Kurt Schwitters ideal to ‘make connections between everything in the world.” The project will transform rooms of an apartment into living sculpture.

Albert Beniada

Albert is a filmmaker and a tutor. He holds a B.S. in computer science and has studied film production at USC. His love of learning and passion for creativity permeate both his teaching and his films, which run the gamut from narrative to documentary to music video.

Arts in Bushwick

Arts in Bushwick is an all volunteer organization that serves and engages artists and other neighborhood residents through creative accessibility and community organizing. It is our goal to create an integrated and sustainable neighborhood, and to bring together all Bushwick residents and stakeholders to counter development-driven displacement.

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking is centered of the conviction that every young person has a story to tell and an important contribution to make our world. We believe that filmmaking holds within it essential disciplines of literacy, communication, creative and critical thinking, storytelling and teamwork that young people need to effectively express their unique visions. In the process they gain self-esteem, master state-of-the-art technology and are transformed from passive consumers to active creators of media. We say to teens: You have a voice. Use it!

Founded in 2001 at the Prospect Park YMCA, Reel Works is a full-time nonprofit arts organization that serves over 150 teens each year through five core programs: The Lab, The Master Class, Reel Impact, Reel Works Productions and the Summer Lab.

(Top photo by David Crespo)